I went a different direction based on the initial post on this thread,

That's because I started in one place, and ended up in a different place, so it was certainly easy to get there.

Have fun with the land search and deciding on home design. Fun project!

We've already started listing the house requirements. I had a requirements doc for this house, and will do something similar for the next house. And I have a very detailed spreadsheet that we will use to track our construction costs as we go through the process.

It should be easier and less painful this time because DH will only have one job - to get the house built. With the current house, he used to work all day at his full time job, then come home and work all night on the house, so he had 2 full time jobs. We won't have that problem this time, and his time will most definitely be better spent on our project than on working for others.

And at the end, we will have exactly what we want. Given how picky we are, that is no small feat, but we did it once, so we can do it again.